Master woodworker Rihards Vidzickis has likely heard some complaints in his day, but “you don’t make ‘em like they used to” is not one of them.
The Latvian carves dugout canoes the same way his father taught him decades ago, which you can watch in the video above. Don’t expect much in the way of verbal instructions from the 18-minute clip — it’s basically just plaintive, unadorned footage of an expert quietly going about his work — but regardless, it serves as a crash course in crude boatmaking, which boils down to essentially three steps: You strip the bark. You hollow the boat. And then you put it in the water.
The video comes from a guild of craftsmen call the Northmen, who also make swords, bows and William-Wallace-worthy axes.
Hope it floats your boat.
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